Joel Benjamin

“Groff is simply sensational in both his roles, charming as himself and astonishing in his revelatory Darin.”

“Watching Hilty and Simard spar, singing the enjoyably apt score and chewing the scenery and each other is the musical event of the season so far.”

“The results are decidedly mixed mostly due to a failure to settle on a tone plus some head-scratching additions that have nothing to do with the story.”

“Hwang’s genius here is his ability to spin his real life into a fascinatingly entertaining work using all these events and characters.”

“Mother Play, though based on Vogel’s own life, is at her most schematic, more an outline barely fleshed out with lots of details rather than the intense emotional revelations of her earlier works such as How I Learned to Drive and Indecent.”

“What might have been a tearjerker is so much more, a chance to completely belong in this character’s mind and heart.”

“Taub (book, lyrics and music) has taken this weighty subject, one full of passion, sadness and personal sacrifice, and has fashioned a theater work that deftly balances history and entertainment.”

“Prayer for the French Republic is monumental, yet human scaled, addressing a resurgent scourge with intelligence and warmth.”

“Harmony successfully melds comedy & drama and history & entertainment.”

“Here Lies Love unreels like an MTV music video with the emotional content lost in the technique.”

“Grey House is frustratingly ambiguous but amusing and entertainingly frightening—although we are all in on the joke.”

“A world premiere production of the Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Summer, 1976 has been directed by Daniel Sullivan whose nuanced approach turns Auburn’s words into three-dimensional portraits.”

“The main problem with Peter Pan Goes Wrong is that virtually all the jokes are physical, an unending series of scenic disasters that become not just predictable, but tiresome.”

“That they are played by three terrific theater veterans—Nathan Lane, Zoë Wanamaker and Danny Burstein—helps spin this play into theatrical gold, an intimate, human-scale work that stands out in a season of blaring musicals.”

“Will Swenson, the charismatic star of ‘A Beautiful Noise,’ is hampered by the full-steam-ahead pacing of the show, leaving little time for introspection. He is a powerhouse, molding his voice to sound like the actual Neil Diamond as best he can, often missing the mark.”

“It Hot has everything a Broadway musical should have: a superb cast, a great score, terrific choreography and the highest production values.”

“Long, revealing monologues, the backbone of this particular play, are delivered directly to the audience rather than to the other characters, making them more speeches than important character revelations.”

“Somehow, even with the novelty of the casting this history-making event wasn’t as heart-poundingly satisfying as in other, more conservative versions.”

“A Strange Loop is a fascinatingly original addition to the Broadway season.”

“Somehow Brown has found a way to keep Shange’s work both mysterious and accessible—quite an accomplishment.”

“Taken as an entertainment MJ satisfies immensely, but as drama not so much.”

“It is an excellently constructed show, its message surviving mostly intact.”

“Leon’s direction brings out more emotional depth from the actors portraying the lower echelon soldiers than the three stars, as if they were in a different play than the leads.”

“On Broadway every once in a while writing, acting, directing and the technical production come together to profound, memorable effect.”

“The new musical 'Tootsie,' with book by Robert Horn and music and lyrics by David Yazbek, based on the well-known and well-liked 1982 film starring Dustin Hoffman, has transformed that cultural icon into a delightful fluff of a musical with just enough wit, theatrical in-jokes, good songs, tongue-in-cheek choreography (Denis Jones) and energeti...”

“The one word to describe The Cher Show is glitzy.”

“King Kong is a diverting show, one with a high entrance fee to be sure, but not the total washout others may lead the public to believe.”

“It is an experience, a rare experience whose aftermath will linger for days, if not weeks, in the minds of those who see it.”

“He takes the glad-handing aspect of Hickey too literally so it is difficult to understand his sway over the denizens of Harry Hope’s saloon.”

“Garcia and O’Malley try hard to breathe life into their shopworn plot and do achieve some good wisecracks and witticisms, but are ultimately defeated by the need to shoehorn the songs into the plot.”

“The subtle revelations brought on by forced intimacy make The Band’s Visit a joy.”

“Despite a brilliant display of achingly detailed acting—reason enough for connoisseurs of acting to rush to this production directed by James Macdonald—its uneasy blend of a frightening nuclear apocalypse and an ugly romantic triangle might be an obstacle for some.”

“The songs are good, not great. Some serve to delve into character (Donny's ‘Donny Novitski,’ Julia's ‘Who I Was’) and some move the plot along (Julia and Donny's ‘First Steps, First,’ the Band members' ‘I Know a Guy’ and ‘A Band in New York City’) and, of course, there are love songs (Julia and Donny's ‘This is Life’ and ‘Welcome Home’).”

“Indecent is extraordinary theatre with heart and head equally balanced in a nuanced, often overwhelmingly effective production.”

“For once a ‘feel-good’ musical that also has depth and resonance!”

“This Falsettos makes a case for its inclusion in the classic musical canon.”

“Ms. Parker has never been better.”

“So it was an extraordinary surprise that the Cats revival at the Theatre turned out to be a melodious, witty and—most shocking!—worthwhile, stylish entertainment.”

“In other words, Nelson and Bareilles have turned Waitress into a boisterous, loveable, but unsubtle musical!”

“His first-rate production almost makes the surprising plot devices credible.”

“This beautiful bon-bon of a musical and will now give a new generation fond memories, too.”

“Allegiance is a sometimes moving, sometimes stodgy musical about this terrible injustice perpetrated against Japanese-Americans.”